This invention relates to milking barns or parlors, more particularly to the herringbone parlor or barn and it is an object of the invention to provide improved apparatus of this character.
Herringbone milk parlors are well-known to the art. Typical examples thereof are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,738,320 Holm, 3,885,528 Vandenberg, 4,194,467 Nielsen and Anderson, and 4,362,127 Nielsen and Wallender.
One of the objectives that exists and has existed as typified by the recited patents in the need to economize in space and to decrease the cost of the structures as well as to make them more simple and sturdier. In each of the patents referred to there is a herringbone or zig-zag framework disposed at the rear and the rear side of a cow while at the front end there is a feedbowl arrangement and additional structure for confining each cow in its own stall. The prime objective of all of these structures is to have the cows come into the milking stalls readily, be confined there while the milking is going on, and provide sufficient exit space so that the cows can move out of the stalls without having to follow each other in single file.
Inasmuch as cows come in different lengths and sizes there is always the problem of having the stall fit the cow once the particular animal has moved into place. In the Nielsen et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,127 the feedbowls form one end of the stall and the feedbowls are carried by a triangular framework attached to superstructure at the top. The superstructure is adapted to move inwardly and outwardly to decrease and increase the space for the cows to stand in. Such structure is heavy and relatively complicated and thus is expensive. Two gate portions in the Nielsen et al. structure are attached respectively to adjacent feedbowl frameworks and the gate or parts swing open, one clockwise and one counterclockwise to provide the additional space desired for the cow to move out of the stall after milking is completed.